The House Jan. 6 select committee has Donald Trump dead to rights. Over the course of four public hearings — with a fifth unexpectedly scheduled for Tuesday — the committee has presented a compelling de facto indictment of Trump and his coup cabal for their crimes on and around Jan. 6, 2021, including treason. The evidence is so conclusive that if Attorney General Merrick Garland does not prosecute Trump, that choice will itself be a crime against American democracy and society.
Ultimately, if Garland refuses to act, future history books will forever connect him to Trump's coup attempt. Such hypothetical accounts may observe that after a defeated president and his confederates attempted to overthrow American democracy, the nation's top law enforcement official declined to hold him accountable — and that led directly to the collapse of democracy and the rise of a fascist regime.
